Facing Challenges, Phila. Board Assumes Higher Profile

The Philadelphia school board is pursuing an ambitious reform agenda
that, along with a recent court order, could bring wide-ranging changes
to the nation's sixth-largest school district.

The board currently is facing three major challenges. It must hire a
superintendent to replace Constance E. Clayton, who held the post for a
decade; negotiate a new contract with the teachers' union; and respond
to a court ruling that the district has treated its minority students
unfairly.

In tackling these tasks, the board has assumed a higher profile than
in the past, when it tended to take a back seat to the forceful Ms.
Clayton.

Since Ms. Clayton retired last summer, the board has "developed a
much stronger role,'' observed Christine Davis, the executive director
of the Parents Union for Public Schools.

"Everybody, including the board, feels that this is a time of major
change in Philadelphia,'' Ms. Davis said. "We need to seize the moment,
take the opportunity, and really go with that change.''

The board last month released a series of contract proposals that it
hopes to negotiate with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

The search for a new superintendent has identified four leading
candidates, some of whom have national reputations as reformers.

At the same time, Commonwealth Court Judge Doris A. Smith has named
a seven-member panel to recommend sweeping changes in the school
system. The judge ruled in February that the district shortchanges
black and Hispanic students, particularly those who attend racially
isolated schools. (See Education Week, Feb. 16, 1994.)

The panel includes two superintendents, two foundation grantmakers,
two representatives of higher education, and one expert on
desegregation.

"I've not seen a panel in my 20 years of experience with school
desegregation with this kind of diversity of people,'' said James D.
Dixon 2nd, a member of the panel and the monitor of the federal
desegregation order in St. Louis.

Rotan E. Lee, the president of the Philadelphia board, said that
while district officials disagree with some of the judge's assertions,
they will not appeal the case. "Her basic motivation has been education
reform,'' he said, "which is the basic motivation of the board.''

Strategy of Openness

In trying to bring about improvements in the district, board members
have pursued a more open strategy than in the past, said Floyd Alston,
the panel's vice president. Under Mr. Lee's leadership over the past 18
months, he said, the board has tried to reach out to the community, to
be more aggressive about getting information out, to visit more
schools, and to hold more community meetings.

Since Ms. Clayton's departure, Mr. Lee has taken on many day-to-day
responsibilities in running the district, Ms. Davis noted. But Mr. Lee
said he will cut back when a new superintendent is hired.

"I don't think that when you have a strong superintendent, the kind
of role that I have had to play would have had to happen,'' the board
president said.

Mr. Lee confirmed that the board is considering hiring David W.
Hornbeck, a prominent education consultant and former state
superintendent in Maryland; John Murphy, the superintendent of the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., schools; Mary Lee Fitzgerald, a former
education commissioner in New Jersey; and Arthur Walton, the deputy
commissioner of education in New York State.

Mr. Lee said he considered the four to be strong candidates, but
left open the possibility that others could be considered.

Finalists will be reviewed by a 45-member community panel, and the
board hopes to make a selection by June.

Reconstituting Schools

At the end of August, the court-appointed panel is scheduled to
release its reform recommendations. Also at that time, the teachers'
union's contract expires.

Some of the changes the board is seeking in the teachers' contract
address issues raised in the desegregation lawsuit, although board
members say their proposals were not in reaction to the decision.

"We have no choice but to do some dramatic things to ultimately
impact student achievement,'' Mr. Alston said. "That's the bottom line.
Hopefully, we will have the union as our partner.''

The board is seeking the right to reconstitute the staffs of schools
that do not improve over a three-year period, a longer school day and
longer work year for teachers, changes in the seniority system, and
greater flexibility for schools in deciding which teachers will work in
their buildings.

The panel also is proposing greater control over the assignment of
teachers to better balance the experience levels of school faculties.
One proposal would allow the district to assign the most experienced
teachers to meet individual schools' needs, while another would limit
transfers to schools with too many or too few experienced teachers.

'Control Over Teachers'

Ted Kirsch, the union president, said he viewed the proposals as
aimed not at reform, but at achieving "control over the teachers.''

"Nothing in their proposal addresses the problems in schools,'' he
contended. "We don't have supplies. Transferring a teacher isn't going
to get kids more books.''

In its counterproposals, the union is calling for collaboration with
social-service agencies, expanded full-day kindergarten, alternative
schools for disruptive students, and more textbooks, materials, and
supplies.

The union also wants more professional-development opportunities for
teachers, more remedial help for students, and more challenging high
school courses.

Mr. Kirsch disputed assertions by the judge and the board that
schools with needy students tend to have less experienced teachers. A
survey by the union, he said, found that in 263 of the 265 schools in
the city, at least 40 percent of the teachers had been teaching 10
years or more.

The district will need more money to offer teachers in exchange for
radical reforms, Mr. Lee acknowledged. The system is facing a deficit
of $25 million next year.

"If you're going to tell somebody to give up something or change,
and you offer them nothing, how far are you going to get?'' he
asked.

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